Easy Chicken Pasta Carbonara

Okay so actually Pasta Carbonara isn't actually that difficult to pull off, and is a quick and tasty dinner. Once you know the basic recipe then you can play around with it tons. So here is one I did with chicken the other day, so hopefully you guys can try it and put your own spin on it :)

Time: about 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

• Pasta (fresh, dry, whatever you have on hand is fine.)
• Double cream (yes, it's not the most slimming recipe :P)
• 1-2 eggs
• bacon cubes or pancetta (you can use strips of bacon as well, but cubes are easier)
• chicken (minced chicken, diced, or whatever is most practical)
• green peas (I prefer the frozen fresh green peas, or actual fresh ones. I wouldn't recommend canned peas, or mushy peas :p)
• salt and pepper
• parmesan (optional)
• garlic 1-2 cloves (minced or crushed)
• olive oil

Process

Start by boiling up water for your pasta, I usually boil mine in vegetable stock and salt to give the pasta additional flavor. After the water has come up to a boil add your pasta, and some olive oil and cook the pasta until it is al dente. You can check the pasta by tasting it or throwing it on the refrigerator or another smooth metal surface, If one strand of pasta sticks to the surface, then the pasta is done. Strain the pasta and add olive oil to make it less sticky, put the pasta back into the pot and let it sit while you finish the rest of the dish. It's important to have a lid on the pot, since the pasta needs to be warm when you add the sauce. The frozen peas should be taken out of the freezer and added to a bowl with lukewarm water, this way the peas will not be frozen when you add them to your dish and you don't have to cook them separately.

While you are boiling your pasta, start frying you bacon in a frying pan, it should be pretty crispy before you take it of the heat. Add the bacon to your strained pasta in the pot, or in a bowl to be added later on depending on how far along you are in the pasta process :P Next is the chicken, fry it up in some olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper. It's important to cook the chicken all the way through, so it should be golden brown before you add it to the pasta.

Next up is the sauce, which you of course should mix up before you start the entire cooking process to speed things up a bit :P This is really quite simple, you just take your double cream and whisk in 1-2 eggs. The amount of cream and eggs will of course vary, but I usually measure by eye. The sauce should have a tint of yellow in it from the egg, if not add more eggs. After the sauce has been whisked together, mix the peas, bacon and chicken in with the pasta and pour the sauce over the entire concoction. Mix it gently until the sauce thickens and reduces, the sauce should stick to the food, if there is lots of sauce in the bottom of the pan then you have probably made too much sauce or the pasta isn't hot enough. Don't stir to vigorously because the sauce might go lumpy. Add salt & pepper and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the pasta, stir it in and voila you have made chicken carbonara!

It might not be perfect after your first try, but it'll probably still taste good. And after a couple of tries it will be super easy and super fast! Take away the chicken and peas and you have a standard pasta carbonara, but it's fun to play around with. I usually serve it with garlic bread and a light salad.

My favorite salad to serve with pasta is this one:

• 1-2 avocado
• arugula
• feta cheese
• olive oil
• lemon zest
• salt & pepper
• 1 onion

I actually got this recipe from my aunt :) It's a lovely simple salad, that is fresh, light and a bit tangy the perfect companion to the heavy carbonara. Chop the avocado into chunks, chop the onion into small chunks mix it in with rinsed and dried arugula. Mix in cubes of feta cheese (if you are using a jar with marinated feta cheese, then cheat and use the oil from the jar in the salad). Lightly whisk olive oil with lemon zest and pour it over the salad, add salt and pepper directly to the salad and fold it in. That's all there is to it :)

Pasta carbonara with a salad and garlic bread is a sure crowd pleaser, and best of all it is super easy and quick to make as well. + it tastes good, what's not to like. It's super easy to make the dish more healthy, you can use turkey bacon for a lower fat count, use double cream with lower fat percentage, and you can even use wholegrain pasta. So try it out and experiment, and please share your experiences. Sorry there's no photo, but I don't have a camera and my cellphone isn't exactly the best for taking photos :)

Huldra- the Forest Temptress

Huldra is a character that is not purely limited to Norwegian lore and culture, she appears all over lore in the whole of Scandinavia. This isn't all that surprising when you think about it since the Scandinavian countries have been in close contact for almost as long as these countries have existed. The lore about Huldra is slightly different from country to country, but there are huge similarities, and there are several names for the Hulder : Huldra (meaning hidden, covered or secret, Skogsrå/Skogsfru/Skovfrue (Lady of the forest, foreslady), Tallemaja (pine tree Mary). Normally she is portrayed as a seductive and tempting forest creature, there are mentions of male hulders though this is not nearly as common as Huldra. The male hulders are called huldrekall or huldu, in Norway we usually call them huldrekall. Both Huldra and the male hulders are shapeshifters and change their appeareance to look more appealing to the opposite sex, this ability comes in handy since they apparently are quite ugly in their natural form. I'm going to focus the most on the female variety of hulders, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that they were hulders of both sexes. The hulders are often associated with trolls, vetter and tusser which are other supernatural creatures connected with nature in Scandinavian lore.

There are several myths about how the hulders came to be, but one of the more popular one is of a Christian variety. Where Eve had only washed half of her children before God came to visit them in their cottage, she was so ashamed of the dirty ones that she hid them. Thus God decided that the children she hid from him should be hidden from mankind and they then became what we now know as hulders. Huldra is usually described as a stunning or unearthly woman with long hair, sometimes she appears naked other times she is portrayed as a farm girl in peasant clothing but obviously she would be more beautiful than most farm girls. There are stories which say that she looked normal from the front, but that from behind she would look like an old hollow tree trunk. This isn't really the most common tale, usually she is portrayed as a beautiful woman/ young woman appearing to be normal and beautiful but with an animal tail that she usually would hide from her victims (usually she is portrayed with a cow's tail, but there are tales of her having a fox tail instead).

Usually the stories about Huldra details a temptress that lures men into the forest to have sex with her, she would reward those she felt were up to snuff, and punish the ones who weren't. The Norwegian version of Huldra is not known to be particularly violent or bloodthirsty and often she would simply lure a man with her into the underworld. Sometimes she would even steal human babies and replace them with her own ugly children (changelings), there are also stories about children being the result of an affair between a man and a hulder. In these cases she would often present the child to its father, and there are also stories of hulders who forced the father of her child to marry her. However most of the stories about marriages between hulders and men, are usually voluntary from both sides (in some cases the men actually forced the hulder, since being married to a hulder could bring great luck). Stories of relationships such as these are not at all uncommon in Norway and it is not merely folktales or fairy tales either, some people actually claimed that it was true. There is one example of an older man from Valdres who claimed that he had a child with Huldra, his tale was even broadcasted on the radio in Norway. He was still alive in the 1980s, so tales like these are not merely from the old days there have been fairly modern claims of meetings with Huldra.

There are different takes about what happens when Huldra marries a human, but the most common one is that if she marries a Christian man then she will lose her tail, but not her beauty, and the couple often live happily ever after. However this is only if she is treated well by her husband, if she is treated badly she will show her strength by bending out horseshoes or the like with her bare hands and use her powers to bring bad luck on her husband. There are cases where she punishes quite severely, causing loss of hearing, sight and or insanity.

Huldra is often said to have her own cow her, with cows that were never bothered with disease or injuries. The cows were the prime examples of their species, and if the dairymaids were friendly and respectful towards Huldra then she might bless their cattle in similar ways.

I hope this has been a little bit enlightening, I've used sources since my own knowledge has some gaps. However I have tried to write most of it simplified and in my own words. Please give feedback if you have some questions, or other comments. I might do a new post with stories about Huldra if there is interest in it. Coming up next in my next post is a recipe for easy chicken carbonara :)

Music to inspire - Peer Gynt suite #1, Op. 46 - 4. In the Hall of the Mountain King, Edvard Grieg

Sources:

wikipedia

Norwegian school project online (this is also where I found the picture)

A New Year! Thoughts about the past year, and what's to come...

So Christmas is over and done with and so is New Year's eve, it's weird how fast time goes by! This year has been both good and bad, filled with challenges. As many of you know Norway was struck by a huge tragedy this year, on the 22 of July 2011 a Norwegian man set of a bomb in Oslo and drove out of the city to a political gathering for youth and shot and killed many young people. It was a huge shock for the entire society! I was in Oslo that day, sitting in my apartment when I felt the blast. I didn't understand what it was and at first I thought it was just thunder, but after a while I understood what had happened. In many ways 2011 was perhaps not the best year, but of course great things happened as well! I got a boyfriend and my brother had another child so now I have 4 nephews :) I believe that everything happens for a reason, but it isn't always clear to us what that reason might be... I hope the new year will bring peace for everyone affected directly by this catastrophe.

I didn't really have a lot of Christmas spirit this year, but it was nice nonetheless :) I got tons of great presents, and it seemed like my presents to others was well received. I love getting great presents for other people, part of the challenge is getting stuff they don't expect I think those gifts are the best :) I got more of the collection of plates and dinnerware that I've started collecting, I'm hoping to get enough so that I can use it everyday :) I'll put a link down to the site of the designer at the end of the page, it's super cute and it comes in different colors so you can mix and match :) My school subjects for this semester was finally approved, but I still need to meet with the administration to find out what I'll do about my next semester. I'm hoping it will all work out.

As soon as I start back up with school and my life is more organized I'm hoping to try and have a meal plan and food budget. I did some math, I should be able to make dinner each day for about 100 NOK (hopefully less) which is about 14 USD. Which means that my dinner budget for each month will be about 2800 NOK, hopefully I'll manage. Saving money can be fun I hope, and I'm looking forward to trying tons of new recipes :) I found this awesome web site while using stumbleupon (which I of course got totally addicted to during my exams, bad timing :P) it's called foodgawker. It's really cool it gathers recipes from food blogs and websites in one spot, and then you can favorite them and have tons of great recipes in one site ^^ You can also plot in keywords or specific dishes in the search field and get tons of recipes related to this :) It has quickly become my new obsession I think I have about 280 favorite recipes saved already :P So definitely check this site out if you like food, and need some new recipes.

I think I'll do some posts about places to visit in Norway and stuff about or traditions and lore :) I'll be doing a post about Huldra next and hopefully I'll have some food posts after that. Until next time, which might be later today if I can't sleep :P

plates and tableware which I collect: Pip studios

Foodgawker

Crazy life

I've been a really bad blogger lately, no updates for a year :O Life has been crazy, and has had its ups and downs... I had to move again! Sick and tired of moving, but hopefully this time it'll be for a while :P I talked about trying out a dating site the last time I posted, and it actually worked out *surprise surprise*. So I actually have a boyfriend, me the "eternally single" person has a boyfriend, I met him through the dating site I was trying out and it was totally strange because we just clicked instantly. In March we'll be celebrating our one year anniversary, strange strange. We've actually moved in together so I'm hoping it'll work out okay :p It's really weird, I mostly tried out the dating site as a joke and it panned out. So don't knock it if you haven't tried it ;)

My economy is totally in shambles because I lost my scholarship for a short period, I actually had to apply for a loan in my bank. So after celebrating this Christmas with an empty wallet, I'm hoping that the new year will bring a better economy and a less chaotic life :P I'm really motivated about school this year, and I'm nearing the end of my BA. and I'm hoping that I'll be able to study abroad afterwards, time will show. The only problem with school at the moment besides financially is the fact that my university keeps moving the times when they offer certain subjects so my study plan is kind of screwed, but I'm hoping that it'll work out eventually. Any of you have any experience with bad administration at your schools? Please share and rant if you will :)

I was actually thinking about shutting down this blog since I didn't feel like there was a point to it, and that I didn't really have the time. I was playing around with the idea of starting a new blog in Norwegian instead, but somebody left me a comment to one of my posts, which motivated me to keep going. So there will be a few changes to the blog, I'm hoping to combine my personal life and interests with my love of cooking. So I'll be attempting to post some recipes along with posts about my attempts at different dishes, hopefully it'll work out. I'll give it a shot anyways ;)

So here is to a new start and here are some new year resolutions:

• I will try to post more often, at least once a week or more
• I want to try and manage my weekly food expenses more smart, and maybe post about my experiences
• Try to save up some money
• Work harder with school

Hopefully I'll manage at least one or two of these :P

Update :O

Sorry for not updating in a while, but my laptop was broken once again :S I'm currently waiting for my scholarship money to tick into my account, and the minute it does I'll be ordering my new laptop :) Luckily I live with a very nice person who owns two laptops, thus I get to borrow the other for the duration :D Lucky!!!

I still haven't started school again :p My first class is monday :D I had a really loooooooong vacation, but I'm not complaining :p I did however work during the holidays so I'm not only lazing about :) I actually joined a dating website *blush* i decided to try it out for 3 months, and if it didn't work out I figured I could at least say "I tried". Don't mock it if you haven't tried it, that sort of thing.

I've already been out for a cup of coffee with one guy, it was actually kind of nice :) I'm having dinner with another on sunday, which I'm really looking forward to but I'm nervous as well... He seems like a really good guy, so I hope it'll turn out alright :P

I got a new apartment so I'm moving again :p After this move, I won't be going anywhere for a looooong time :P the rent is a bit expensive, but it's worth it :)

I've got all sorts of fun stuff planned for the weekend :) wine with my girlfriends :D celebrating my best friends belated birthday :) dinner sunday, school monday... :O

Other then that my life is the same old, same old :P I got tons of awesome gifts for Christmas, and I had a good holiday, allthough the christmas spirit was somewhat lacking :P I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! Oh and I'm going to London for the very first time in March :D I'm super excited!!! it's only for a weekend/3 days, but I intend to make the most of it! Any travelling tips for London? Must see's? Please let me know, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

tune of the day is fembot by Robyn which you can find here :)

Christmas and traditions

So, the holidays are coming (Yes, I quoted the coca cola commercial unintentionally)... The snow is here to stay, or at least it seems like it's staying :p I really hope the snow is here until at least Christmas is over and done with. It just isn't a proper norwegian Christmas without snow. This is the first Christmas Eve in years that I'm not working or singing in the church so I'm really looking forward to watching all the holiday specials on TV and munching on the candy from my Christmas stocking :) 

I'm not really in the Christmas mood at the moment, which is odd since Christmas is my favorite holiday hands down. Not that we actually celebrate that many, but still :p In Norway the presents are traditionally opened on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day and normally one does it in the evening after dinner, there'll probably not be any small children there this Christmas so it'll be a little different. It looks like it'll only be me, mum and dad which is a first. Since I have three older brothers Christmas tends to be crowded :p It'll be weird not seeing my brothers for Christmas, but I guess that's life. We were invited to spend Christmas at one of my brothers's house but it just didn't feel right. After all Christmas is all about tradition, and celebrating at home is my tradition and it wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't at home.

Each Christmas we eat the traditional norwegian Christmas meal Ribbe (Which is pork ribs), though it is actually common for norwegians to eat different things at Christmas Eve. In some parts of Norway you eat Ribbe, other Christmas dinner options are: Lutefisk (which is made from stockfish (air-dried whitefish) or dried/salted whitefish (klippfisk) and lye (lut). Its name literally means "lye fish."Usually it'll be cod), Pinnekjøtt (which is steamed lamb or sheep ribs, it is first salted and dried (often it is also smoked), then you put it in water overnight to remove the excess salt and then it's steamed, Smalahove (which is a sheep head), ham, turkey, salted cod and any other traditional norwegian dish may be consumed at Christmas Eve. Most people will eat many of the dishes at one point or another during the Christmas holidays or jul/ as we call it in Norway. 

Personally I can't stand Lutefisk, and I've never tried Smalahove and most norwegians have in fact never eaten Smalahove though it is supposed to be a delicacy. I do however enjoy Ribbe and Pinnekjøtt and we usually eat turkey on New Years Eve. All of those dishes of course has a lot of trimmings :) On the 23 what we call Lille Julaften in Norway we normally eat porridge with cinnamon, sugar and butter and we always drink juce-extract mixed with water with our porridge we call this saft (it's usually made from berries and fruit and is the equivelent to a soft drink without the carbonated water, the one most used for christmas is of course red). In the pot of porridge we have one almond (almond - mandel in norwegian), the one that gets the almond wins a prize which is usually a marzipan pig which is a common Christmas treat in Norway. Old traditions state that one must give a plate of porridge to Nissen (which is a type of house/farm spirit in Norwegian folklore, and it can be either helpfull or bothersome) the plate is usually placed outside of the house or in some cases in the barn, it is believed that if one does not do this then Nissen will get very angry and will sabotage the house or farm until next Christmas. To this day some people still give porridge to Nissen during Christmas.

Since we don't live on a farm we've never given porridge to Nissen, though I did tell my parents on several occasions in my younger years that we should :p Instead we use the left over porridge to make a very tasty Christmas dessert for Christmas Eve, this is called riskrem and is cold porridge mixed with whipped cream and a warm red cherry or strawberry sauce on top. If nobody gets the almond on the 23 then it is normally still in the riskrem so you can still win the Marzipan pig on Christmas Eve.

The last few years I've sung in church on the 23 instead of on Christmas Eve, and I'll be doing it this year as well :) I'm really looking forward to it! So that's a little bit about norwegian Christmas traditions, I might make a post later on with more info about how we celebrate Christmas in Norway. If you are interested in knowing more, you might want to check out wikipedia which has a lot of information actually on the subject. I actually had to check myself to see how I should explain Lutefisk in english :p Since I'm not really in the Christmas spirit yet, the tune of the day is "Hey Modern Days by The Ark" which you can listen to here.

Do you have any special Christmas traditions? I would love to hear about it :) Please leave a comment, or better yet make a post on your own blog if you have one and leave the link to it in a comment :) Any opinions are appreciated to please feel free to speak your mind, I hope it was interesting to read a little about norwegian christmas. There will probably be more later on :) Btw are you as psyched as I am about cataclysm? Until next time, live long and prosper ;)

The Picture is of a norwegian Nisse, and it says God Jul on the picture which is Merry Christmas in norwegian.

Long time no see...

Hi, guys!

So a lot of stuff has happened since the last time I posted... First off, I decided to postpone writing my BA project since I couldn't focus enough on it... I finished my other paper, and I'm hoping that it'll turn out alright. I also finished season 3 of true blood, I read all the books including the short story collection :p So I'm quite bored at the moment trying to think of smart things to do, to keep amused. I've taken up writing again, so hopefully that'll keep me a bit occupied. I'm thinking about starting to study latin, so that I'll be ahead when I start school again after christmas. Right now I'm finished with school and I'm just working. Looking forward to christmas, but there's still a long way to go. Fortunately :p Since I'm way behind on the gifts :O 

It's getting really cold here now, which is really early :S This means that this winter will probably be really harsh... Oh well, at least there's snow :) Oh, and I've also been at the HP Deathly Hallows pt.1 midnight premiere, plus I've been out munching greek food with some girlfriends :D I might do an update on that later on :) Sorry about the short post, but I'm tired and I need some tea :) See you later ;)

Tune of the day: Daddy's gone by Glasvegas, can be found here.

Picture taken by Janicke Fausko, and it's from last new years :) We were all on a cozy cabin trip together <3